Research Report # 1 March 10, 1997 SDA: Sabbath, Remnant, Three Angels Message... Where Is The Gospel? The following quote comes from the book *Sabbath in Crisis* by Dale Ratzlaff, pages 295-296. I highly recommend this book. It can be purchased online at the link I provide on my page titled "Research on Seventh-day Adventism: Christian Sect or Cult?". Many people who leave the Seventh-day Adventist church have unanswered questions regarding which church is the "true" or "remnant" church and what part, if any, the Sabbath has in connection with the "true church". Seventh-day Adventists are taught to believe that the SDA church is God's last-day, true church, or "the remnant church." The support for this belief is derived mainly from two passages in the book of Revelation. And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus (Rev. 12:17). And I fell at his feet to worship him...And he said to me, "Do not do that; I am a fellow-servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God...For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Rev. 19:10). Seventh-day Adventists believe these verses teach that the SDA church is the only, true, remnant church. Their reasoning goes like this: The "woman" represents the church. The "rest" ("remnant" KJV) of her offspring must be the portion of the church living in the last days (our time). Revelation 12:17 lists two identifying marks of this last church: (1) It will "keep the commandments of God" and (2) "hold to the testimony of Jesus." But what is the "testimony of Jesus"? By comparing Revelation 19:10 they find that the "testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." They interpret "commandments of God" to mean the Ten Commandments of Sinai, including the Fourth Commandment, which leads them to conclude the end-time church will be a seventh-day, Sabbath-keeping church. They interpret "spirit of prophecy" to mean a last-day prophet giving a prophetic message. They believe this last-day prophet is Ellen G. White, whose writings they refer to as "The Spirt of Prophecy" or "The Testimonies." The SDA church accepts her writings as "an authoritative source of truth." Seventh-day Adventists believe and teach that the SDA church is the only, true, last-day church because it is the only seventh-day, Sabbath-keeping church which has a modern-day prophet. Dale Ratzlaff goes on with a great exegesis of these texts and shows that the SDAs have simply misinterpreted these verses and read into them meanings which are not there. This next quote is from page 301 of *Sabbath In Crisis*. Our conclusion is that these verses have nothing to do with the writings of Ellen White, even if these writings are known by Seventh-day Adventists as "the Spirit of Prophecy" or "Testimonies to the Church". John was imprisoned on the isle of Patmos not because he had the writings of Ellen White, not because he was a prophet, but because he held to the truth concerning Jesus. The church derives its "trueness" as it submits to the head of the church, Jesus Christ. We conclude that the reasoning used by Seventh-day Adventists to prove they are the true, remnant church of the last days is faulty on every count. First, the term "commandments of God" as generally used in the New Testament does not always refer to the Ten Commandments. In the writings of John, "commandments" usually refers to the new covenant law of love. John always uses the term "Law" to refer to old covenant law. Second, the term "testimony of Jesus" is easily defined, both from its own usage in Greek and from the way this term is used elsewhere in Revelation. It simply means the truth from or concerning Jesus. Third, when Scripture states that "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" it has nothing to do with a last-day prophet, rather it has to do with the fact that all prophecy of Scripture centers in Jesus Christ. It is this truth which is the "spirit" or theme of all prophecy. Are you looking for "the true church"? You will find no one human organization which is the true church. Rather look for a local gathering of Christian believers who confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, who are filled with the Holy Spirit as evidenced by the exaltation of Christ and the proclamation of the Gospel, who practice water baptism and celebrate the Lord's Supper, who study and obey God's Word, and who express their forgiven condition by loving one another. There you will find God's true church regardless of its name. This next quote comes from an interview conducted by Douglas Hackleman, editor of *Adventist Currents*, with Walter Martin, Christianity's premier cult watcher. The interview took place in February, 1983 and appeared in Vol. 1, No. 1, July, 1983, the very first issue of *Adventist Currents*. I really enjoy this magazine as a research resource. It is no longer being printed but contains great information on events which occurred during the 1980s within Seventh-day Adventism. You can still obtain copies of these old issues by writing or calling Douglas Hackleman at the address or phone number I've listed on my research page. The portion of the interview between *Adventist Currents* and Walter Martin which I am quoting was with regard to Walter's Martin's work with SDAs in the 1950's. The result of those hundreds of hours of dialogue and research resulted in the publishing of two books. The SDA's *Answers to Questions on Doctrine* and Walter Martin's *The Truth About Seventh-day Adventism*. These works were a historic breakthrough for SDA's relations with Evangelicals. Prior to this most Evangelicals had labeled SDAs a cult and would not fellowship with them. Walter Martin's work, rightly or wrongly, helped SDAs gain broader acceptance in the Evangelical world. In this quote Walter Martin tells of the language barrier which had to be surmounted in order to have both sides understand each other. MARTIN: Almost complete. I wrote my book in 1960, three years after *Questions on Doctrine*. I had already done the articles for Eternity Magazine. They read the articles. We went over them together. Not that they were going to censure what I had said (they wouldn't even suggest that). They wanted to be certain what I said was such that Adventists who read Eternity, and read the reprints of the articles, would understand where we were coming from because we had two different vocabularies. And this was a terribly important point historically - we were actually at that juncture synchronizing vocabulary between Adventism and evangelical Christianity, which had never been done before. That was a major semantic breakthrough. You have no idea how much time went into making sure we used terms that were mutually understandable. CURRENTS: Give one or two examples just for fun, of terms that both sides could use but use differently. MARTIN: Well, in early Adventist theology "Remnant Church" meant the Seventh-day Adventist denomination - the General Conference when in session - was the highest governing body on earth, that they were a special people called out by God with the Third Angel's Message, and that the seal of this was the fact that they kept the seventh day Sabbath. And that set them apart as the "Remnant Church." Alright now. That view gradually had been altered and expanded through the years in the thinking of moderate Adventists so that they did not come out and say it in publications; it was sort of a tacit agreement. They weren't back in the 1870's and '80's anymore with, "We are the only church." They were recognizing other members of the body of Christ, even though they worshiped on Sunday rather than on Saturday. For the first time we got out in the open this new tolerance. I asked, "What do you mean by 'Remnant Church?' To our people it means that you are the only Christians. To some of your people that is what it means, too. And to other members of your church it means, well, we are special people - God marked us out but we are not the only Christians. Now, how do we get these strings tied together?" So we tried to deal with it in Questions on Doctrine, where we spelled out that there were other members of the body of Christ. The Adventists considered themselves unique because of what they believed were revelations from Mrs. White to the church. I didn't buy the basic argument, but we printed the argument, perhaps for the first time, where Adventists and non-Adventists could at least see where each of them was coming from. Martin seems to believe this problem of SDAs thinking they are the "remnant" or only "true church" is one which was more a problem in the early years of the church's existence. No doubt the limited number of diplomatic spokesmen he dealt with tried hard to paint this picture. On the other hand consider the quote from Dale Ratzlaff's book. He wrote his book some seven years after this interview with Walter Martin and about 34 years after Martin's original conversations with SDA leaders. Ratzlaff makes it clear in his book that this doctrine of the SDAs being the "remnant" church in an exclusive sense is still very prevalent, if not dominant in the teaching within the SDA church. I wonder if Martin would have agreed they are not a cult if he had adequately understood this fact. This teaching is still one of the most effective tools Adventists have for frightening people into joining their church. See the e-mail sent to me by Layman Ministries. They boast of spreading the THREE ANGELS MESSAGE (a misinterpretation of Revelation which pictures the SDA church as the one true, remnant church of the last days). They brag that this convinces many to join their church. Interesting that it is not a clear presentation of the Gospel which makes people want to join them. I think they mistakenly confuse the Three Angels Message with the Gospel since it does cause people to be baptized into membership in the church they believe you must ultimately belong to in order to not receive the "mark of the beast" in the "last days". Visit the website of Layman Ministries and see this scare tactic in action. I have a link to their site on my page titled "SDA Response and My Reply". Consider this next quote from Dale Ratzlaff's book *Sabbath in Crisis* pages 302-303. The Sabbath doctrine has proven to be a manipulative tool in Seventh-day Adventist evangelism. The evangelistic method often used is to "show" from portions of Scripture (often out of context) the binding nature of the seventh-day Sabbath and explain to the people that if they want to be saved and not receive the "mark of the beast" then they should join the SDA church, which is God's only true, remnant church. Seventh-day Adventists teach the seventh-day Sabbath is the "seal of God" and Sunday worship will become the "mark of the beast." This manipulative method has brought thousands if not millions of "converts" into the SDA church... Following is a letter I received two days before I revised this chapter (in 1995). It illustrates how Seventh-day Adventists use the Sabbath as a manipulative tool in their evangelism. Dear Sir, I have purchased your book Sabbath in Crisis, and have found it to be enlightening and biblically correct. Let me tell you something about myself. I am a twenty-eight year-old black female. I am a born-again Christian for eight years now and an active church member. I am a member of the _____ church. The reason for my writing to you is I have a male friend whom I love very much. We have known each other for about three years. He is an Adventist. At first there was not much of a problem. We are both Christians, serving the same God. Two months ago, the Seventh-day Adventist Conference of _____ started tent meetings. The preacher is an Adventist minister from ____. I have heard him preach. He has been preaching that if a person does not keep the Sabbath they are in unbelief and are lost. He says persons who go to church on Sundays have the mark of the beast. He says God (1) cannot change, (2) cannot lie, (3) cannot hear a law breaker's prayer, among other things. He also teaches that in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, it says that if we do not keep the commandments we are lost, among other things. My friend of three years, whom I pray with, who visits my church, and I his, is now faced with two problems. He is being taught that I am not a Christian. The preacher is very persuasive and the Adventists do not question anything he says. My friend who was already baptized went and was rebaptized again. Over four hundred persons are baptized every Saturday for the past two weeks. Now Adventists are coming up to persons who are not Adventists and telling these persons they have the mark of the beast. My friend does not want to lose my friendship, or I his, but this thing has become a mountain. I think I read that you were once an Adventist; why did you leave? Could you write back to me and just give me an idea of what you think of what I have written you about... What this young woman writes is typical of Adventist "traditional evangelism" and how they use the Sabbath as a manipulative tool. We see that Walter Martin was told that this sort of teaching was a part of early Adventism in the 1800's but had been moderated by the 1950's. How then is it that we still see this sort of thing in official Adventist tent meetings and Revelation seminars in the 1990's and even on the Internet today? The fact is, it never went away! This has always been Adventism's "big stick" for bringing in new members and keeping current ones. Scare them with apocalyptic nonsense and the idea they will lose salvation if they don't belong to the "one true, remnant church" in the last days. I have visited the website of "Layman Ministries" I have included quotes from their study titled "The Three Angels Message". They truly seem to confuse this misinterpretation from the book of Revelation with the gospel. It is clear this particular group of SDAs have no clue what the gospel message is. It is also abundantly clear that they think our works help to earn salvation. See how much emphasis is placed on keeping the ten commandments, especially the fourth or Sabbath commandment. To keep you on track, notice that this group uses YHWH as the title for God and Yaohushua for Jesus. Many have compared the legalism of the SDA church to that of the Pharisees. This group's insistence on using Hebrew titles seems to lend credibility to that analogy. There is a real elitist attitude here. Quote from the conclusion to lesson 11 in the THREE ANGELS MESSAGE from Layman Ministry's website. The book of Revelation describes the true remnant church as those who keep the commandments of YHWH, and have the testimony of Yaohushua. The book of Revelation also reveal that Satan will rage war against those who keep the commandments of YHWH. This means that the great controversy between Yaohushua and Satan will center around YHWH's Divine Law! Quote from the conclusion to lesson 12 in the THREE ANGELS MESSAGE from Layman Ministry's website. The final presentation of the gospel calls the inhabitants of earth to the worship of the Creator and actually quotes part of the 4th commandment, "Worship Him that 'made heaven and earth, and the sea'." The recognition of YHWH as our Creator becomes automatic when we recognize and observe His Sabbath. The result of this message is to gather together and prepare a special people who will be loyally obedient to the commandments of YHWH, and be ready when Yaohushua (Jesus) returns. These are the people who will have YHWH'S sign or seal (His Sabbath) on their foreheads. The scriptures also reveal that these faithful individuals will suffer great persecution by those that wear the MARK of Satan, but, what is the MARK? Quote from the conclusion to lesson 13 in the THREE ANGELS MESSAGE from Layman Ministry's website. When examining Revelation chapter 14 and also, what the Papacy have to say regarding their mark of authority, YHWH is carefully revealing to us that the mark is not the "Universal Product Code of 666," nor is it a "micro-chip" imprinted on your forehead or hand. The mark represents the settling in your mind of whom you will obey. YHWH is pleading to all "born again believers" to separate themselves from church organizations, which are not obeying YHWH fully and keeping all of YHWH's ten commandments (which includes YHWH's true Sabbath). We must make a decision "now," whether to serve YHWH and receive His "SEAL" of eternal life, or serve man and receive his mark of eternal death. Quote from the conclusion to lesson 14 in the THREE ANGELS MESSAGE from Layman Ministry's website. The Word of YHWH reveals that The United States of America represents the second beast of Revelation chapter 13. The two horns on this lamb like beast represent the merger of "church and state". The "image" to the first beast spoken of represents "apostate Protestantism." Revelation 13 shows us that the church, state will unite and exercise the power of the 1st beast (Papal Rome), and shall legislate mandatory observance of the false sabbath (SUNDAY). When this country passes these nationwide Sunday blue laws, and the rest of the world follows suit, those in defiance of this law will be persecuted. Quote from the conclusion to lesson #15 in the THREE ANGELS MESSAGE from Layman Ministry's website. The prophecies of the Bible are given to warn us of things to come. Let there be no mistake concerning the prophecy recorded in the "three angels message." The prophetic warning shows us that we are living in the last days of earth's history. A showdown is coming between YHWH'S true Sabbath Vs.. SUNDAY, and in the end we must all make a decision concerning this issue. The door that sealed us in darkness was opened! The light of spirit and truth, was brought in and revealed to us. We are now responsible for what we know, and what we do with that light! May the grace of our Savior "Yaohushua a Meshiach" be with us all, Hallelujah! Here is a copy of a letter I downloaded from SDAnet which provides additional evidence of the confusion within SDAism. After pastoring SDA churches for years Pastor Willey understands the difficulty SDAs seem to have with defining, preaching and understanding the Gospel. He is no longer employed by the SDAs but instead pastors a nondenominational church. Date: Thu, 6 Mar 1997 11:24:13 -0600 (CST) From: Wayne Willey Subject: Gospel Preaching? Some members of SDANet have questioned my assertion that the gospel is clearly preached in less than 1 in 20 sermons in Adventist churches on Sabbath morning. I gave the example of the "typical" Adventist evangelistic series - the most carefully structured preaching series in Adventism. Every sermon in the evangelistic series becomes one more brick in a structure which will be completed by the time the evangelistic series ends. Yet in this most clearly structured preaching series in Adventism, the presentation of the gospel is prominent in only one of 20 or more sermons in the series. I base this assertion on my own observation from attending evangelistic meetings for more than 50 years and from my own reading of evangelistic sermons - I have a good collection of the evangelistic sermons of Adventist evangelists. The sermonic year of very few pastors is as carefully planned as the Adventist evangelistic series. I sat through more than 36 sermons in one of the local Adventist churches and heard only one sermon in which the gospel was clearly presented. That sermon was preached by a guest speaker! The pastor of that church was considered by most people in the area to be one of the better pastors and one of the better preachers in the conference. He left that church to become the ministerial director of one of the conferences in this area. Then, just 30 months later, he was elected president of a conference in another union. Yet, I can say without any hesitation that this man was not a true "minister of the gospel". Many of the members of his church, even his elders, told me they watched televised church services on Sunday mornings to hear the gospel they were not hearing from their pastor at the Adventist church on Sabbath. I know church members, even church leaders including the elders of the church, who attended Sunday churches on a regular basis to hear the gospel they were not hearing at the Adventist church on Sabbath. (Snip) What is the gospel? The message of the gospel focuses upon the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 15:1-8). The message of the gospel tells us that we have forgiveness of sins because Christ paid the full penalty of our sins by His death on the cross. The message of the gospel tells that through faith in Christ we have a perfect righteousness to bring to the judgement - even the righteousness of Christ's perfect life on earth. The message of the gospel tells us that the resurrection of Christ is clear and irrefutable evidence that the Father has accepted the substitutionary life and death of Christ as the basis for saving those who will believe His promise and accept the gift of forgiveness and righteousness. Pastor Wayne Willey H.M.S. Richards, Sr. was one of the most respected leaders the SDA church ever had. He enjoyed admiration and respect from within as well as from outside the SDA church. In his book, *Feed My Sheep* (Washington, D.C.: Review & Herald Publishing assn.) written in 1958, he tells the following story on pages 177-79. Again this is compelling evidence of the lack of Biblical understanding in this church and comes from the pen of one of their favorites. Some time ago it was my privilege to bring to Christ, as revealed in the gospel and taught by the true Advent message, a very fine woman and her daughter. They were both wonderful Christian women and knew Christ as their Saviour in the church to which they had formerly belonged. They saw and accepted all the great doctrines of this truth which we call "the message." They kept the Sabbath and joined the church. The daughter became the wife of one of our workers; she is now. For twenty years the mother was a member of our church, and faithful in attendance. But unfortunately in that particular church there was a series of pastors who preached less and less of the gospel truth, less and less of Bible truth. Sometimes they did not take one text from Scripture, but composed their whole sermon from quotations from the Spirit of prophecy (the writings of Ellen G. White). Good as that is, it is still not Scripture. One man preached there for over six months without using one Bible text, according to the testimony of some of his congregation. After nearly twenty years in the truth, this woman shocked the pastor by saying, I am leaving the Seventh-day Adventist Church and going back to the ______ Church," which happened to be the church of her girlhood. "Why?" he asked. "Why are you doing this terrible thing?" "I'm doing it because I want to hear about Jesus. I'm hungry to hear the gospel, I'm hungry to hear the Bible preached." "Oh, but don't you know these people don't have the Sabbath, the Spirit of prophecy, and all these other wonderful truths?" "Yes," she said, "I know. I'm not giving up the Sabbath. I'm not giving up these wonderful truths. But they have something you don't have. They have the gospel, and they preach from the Bible. I'm so hungry to hear it, I'm going back." "Oh," the pastor said, "I'll give you some Bible studies." "No, you won't," she said. "You don't know what the Bible is. You have been here now for three or four years and I've never yet heard you give one Bible sermon. All you know is an old-covenant religion of do, do; don't, don't; touch not, taste not, handle not; you shall perish with the using. All you know is what these red books (the writings of Ellen G. White) say. You read them to us all the time, but you haven't given us a Bible text for at least six months. You don't understand the Bible. You don't know what the Bible is all about. Don't talk to me about the Bible." "Don't you know that this is the truth?" "Sure," she said, "I know. I'm going to keep the Sabbath, but I've got to go hear the gospel. Good-by!" Well, she did wrong, of course. It was almost certain that in due time she would give up the Sabbath and the other truths that distinguish us as a people. Possibly she should have waited twenty-five or thirty years until they got a preacher who would preach the gospel. But she wouldn't wait. She went. I saw her. I couldn't do anything with her, either. She had made her decision. She said: "No, they don't know what the gospel is. I've had three of them now in succession, important men, too, and not one of them knows what it is all about." I was inclined to agree with her. I had never heard one of them preach the gospel myself. Here is a similar story from Robert D. Brinsmead's book, *Judged by the Gospel* (Verdict Publications, 1980) pages 17-18. In a letter of February 20, 1980, Dr. Herschell C. Lamp, an ordained minister and missionary physician, tells his story: The East Pennsylvania Conference Bible worker gave my mother, my sister, and me Bible studies for about a full year and covered nearly every subject on which a new Adventist is supposed to be catechized, including health reform, wedding rings, other "Christian standards", etc. The first time I was ever in an Adventist church was the Sabbath in December of 1940 when I was baptized in the Harrisburg Church with your sister by B. P. Gernet. I really did not want to be baptized. I went through the rite primarily because I was afraid not to. I knew of the coming investigative judgment, the seven last plagues, the final outpouring of God's wrath on those who did not keep all the commandments of God and believe in the "Spirit of Prophecy" (the writings of E. G. White) and I wanted to escape the fires of hell that would destroy the wicked. Upon returning home to Carlisle that December evening I went to the home of one of my high school classmates where I played table tennis with my three best friends. I stopped the game after a while to tell them of my baptism. Knowing nothing of my religious studies, they asked me what this step meant. My answer is still vivid to me--to my shame! I told them that the significance of my becoming an Adventist was that I could no longer play pinochle, 500, and other forbidden card games, nor could I attend the movies with them, nor could I go to the dance at the Junior Prom, nor could I ever again shoot pool with them at the local pool hall! I didn't mention vegetarianism, abstinence from tea, coffee, and cola drinks, the avoidance of fictitious reading, etc., but it was enough to persuade them that I had lost my mind! As a new Seventh-day Adventist, this was my testimony, my witness, my gospel presentation! You might say that it is unfair to equate my presentation with the gospel, but where did I get these ideas? Looking back I remember no Bible study on justification by faith in the atoning death and faultless merits of Jesus Christ that could give me the assurance of salvation apart from the works of the law. I was simply ignorant of the gospel. When I went away to college, I did begin to learn more about the atonement but it was always the traditional view--justification by faith is forgiveness for past sins, but after that there must be the character development of sanctification necessary to prepare one for the coming judgment and final acceptance. Little wonder that I struggled for assurance! While I was working in the Arizona Conference in 1972 Elden Walter, then Ministerial Secretary of the Southwestern Union, came and gave his presentation on "new Testament Witnessing" at a week-long workers' meeting. His presentation of the assurance of salvation through justification by grace through faith in the merits of Christ was the first really clear presentation of the gospel that I had heard. This is not just a rebuke to our system of Christian education and to the theological training of our ministers; it is also a confession of my own failure to study the standard works of Protestant scholars which I have since read and have found to contain a clear portrayal of the gospel largely unknown to Seventh-day Adventists. Summary: I think the evidence above shows that there is a very definite confusion over the basic Gospel message within Seventh-day Adventism. If they are indeed teaching another gospel or another way of salvation then they deserve to be classified as a cult. There is evidence that some SDAs do understand God's plan of salvation, however. Many of those who do understand, came to that understanding from teaching they received outside the SDA church; prior to becoming an SDA or from one of the few SDA ministers that has a grasp of the gospel message. The dilemma is over what the official position of the SDA church is. I personally believe there is more evidence on the side of their having a very legalistic, works oriented approach to achieving salvation. After all, even the so called "evangelical" Adventists who talk about having the assurance of salvation will admit when pressed on the issue, to believing you can lose or turn away from salvation and that Sabbath keeping has something to do with salvation. You must understand that when they say "assurance of salvation" that does not include "eternal security". Trying to view the Bible by the "light" of Ellen G. White's writings is what has lead them into "darkness" where the gospel is concerned. Finally, the elite attitude expressed by their idea that they are the "only true, remnant church" is a real hindrance to unity within the body of Christ for those within their ranks who are true believers and I have to believe that the Lord is quite distressed by this division among His people. By Bill C. Thompson Return to Research on Seventh-day Adventism: http://web2.airmail.net/billtod/sdarsrch.htm